Viewpoints

Many shooters will be happy to learn that Smith & Wesson, or whats left of it, has been purchased by Saf-T-Hammer Corp., the Scottsdale-based firearms-safety and security company.

Smith & Wesson, a brand name for 147 years, would be at the top of any list of immediately identifiable corporate logos recognized worldwide, said Bob Scott, president of Saf-T-Hammer and former vice president of Smith & Wesson.

Tomkins Corp., a subsidiary of U.K.-based Tomkins PLC, sold Smith & Wesson for $15 million in cash, with $5 million paid upon closing and the balance due in May 2002. As of the close, Smith & Wessons total assets were approximately $97 million, which includes two manufacturing fa...

Whither The Gun Industry?
A suggestion: You might want to test a Carbon-15 as a continuation of your Lightweight AR-15 test in the June 2001 issue. That gun has been getting a number of positive gun reviews elsewhere, which is very suspect. The gun is being sold at a significant discount by CDNN Investments, which might be an unintended indicator of quality and corporate longevity.

I called the company to ask about reliability (the ultimate test of any AR), and got an unfriendly non-answer, which might be the only test that I need.

This led me to think that it is almost impossible to get an unbiased review of guns these days outside of your magazine. I believe that the...

New Yorks high court rules… In a major defeat for anti-firearm activists, the New York Court of Appeals unanimously ruled today that victims of firearms-related violence cannot sue firearms manufacturers for the criminal misuse of a non-defective product, stating that Federal law already has implemented a statutory and regulatory scheme to ensure seller responsibility through licensing requirements and buyer responsibility through background checks.

The Court ruled in Hamilton v. Accu-Tek that an entire industry cannot be held responsible for the criminal use of a legally manufactured and non-defective product because the connection between the manufacturer and the crimin...

Cabelas Millennium Six-Shooter
After receiving my April 2001 issue and reading only one test, I think it is the best issue this old man has read in a long time. I will be ordering a pair of Cabelas Millennium six-shooters ASAP. I went to Cabelas web site to see what I had to do to order a pair. No guns advertised for sale there. I am going to try and find their snail-mail paper catalog. Or maybe I will just call Cabelas.

-Forrest L. Pretzer
Fort Worth, Texas

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Wild Cartridge, Or Not?
In the November 2000 Gun Tests, I was pleased to read the article on .416 rifles. Im intending to have a .416 Taylor built out of a Browning Pump Rifle. Star...

Congressional Battle Looms Over Gun Show Issue… The stage is being set for a renewed gun control debate in Congress as U.S. Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) are reportedly working together on legislation to require background checks on all firearm sales at gun shows. Word that the two are drafting a bill that may also include a government requirement for gun locks coincides with a newly announced national television ad campaign aimed at closing the so-called gun show loophole.

Gun show legislation passed both houses of Congress last year but died in conference committee when agreement could not be reached over how much time to allow for conducting the check...

Magazine Releases
I read Stanton Bergs letter in the April 2001 Gun Tests and was quite concerned with it. He states that he has investigated 28 cases where a magazine safety would have prevented an accident and collected 45 newspaper articles where accidents would have been avoided. He does not acknowledge the golden rule of firearms safety-Keep the muzzle in a safe direction. If he wants to blame something, it should be improper storage or handling, not magazine safeties. As for the 12 officers who had accidents, I can only speculate that they didnt follow proper firearms handling safety. Being in law enforcement, I have heard multiple first-hand instances of locker homicides...

Ashcrofts Views. In his first public interview since taking office, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft made it clear that he feels the nation has enough [gun] laws on the books and that enforcement of current laws is the answer to criminal violence.

Criticizing the Clinton Administration for allowing federal gun prosecutions to decline 46 percent over the past eight years, Ashcroft endorsed Richmond, Virginias Project Exile program, which focuses federal resources on apprehending, prosecuting, and penalizing felons who use guns to commit crimes.

Environmental Problem Solved? For the first time ever in the United States, a shooting range has received a federal perm...

Hi Power Hijinks
Regarding your evaluation of the .40 S&W Browning Hi Power in the September 2000 issue, while I agree this is a fine pistol, it does have one peculiarity that ought to be mentioned. At the risk of being wimpy here, I must say this pistol has the heaviest recoil spring I have ever seen on a handgun. I could only reassemble it with a lot of grunting, groaning, and swearing. The point is, if the prospective buyer is a woman or perhaps an older man such as myself, whose hand strength is not what it once was, unless you have a Sumo wrestler on hand to put the thing back together, dont buy the gun! I traded mine off on a Sig 229.

You also mentioned that 13-round...

Blue Dog Democrats Reject Gun Control: A coalition of some 30 conservative Democrats in the House of Representatives, blaming their partys failure to win back the House because of the gun-control issue, are urging their party to drop it from the Democratic agenda. The group believes the issue hurt Democratic candidates in many races. As we analyzed what happened and why were not successful in some of these races, that [gun control] just stands out, said U.S. Rep. Marion Berry (D-AR).

House Democratic leadership aides blame the Clinton administrations aggressive stance on gun control for the partys poor showing. We dont want it to be part of the Democratic agenda. We just do...

STI Trojan Gets Thumbs Up
I enjoyed reading your article about guns for USPSA Limited 10 in your February 2001 issue. I agree with your assessment that the STI Trojan is a terrific gun. Ive been shooting one for about a year.

For the benefit of others who own the Trojan, perhaps you could relay the information that there is a much easier technique for disassembling the gun than the one listed in your article (where you remove the slide first and then try to capture the spring and guide rod). I realize that is the recommended technique in the manual, but it makes the gun very difficult to break down and assemble. A couple of weeks of removing skin from the inside of my hands...

There is no doubt that widespread voter turnout by American gun owners influenced the outcome of this years elections, most notably in the race for the White House, but in the House of Representatives as well.

Despite Vice President Al Gore reportedly winning the overall popular vote due to his margins in major metropolitan areas like New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago, he ultimately lost because he failed to win the electoral vote in such key swing states as Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio and his home state of Tennessee, all targeted by the NRA and the NSSF for major voter registration and turnout drives to reach hunters and shooting sports enthusiasts.

The NRAs effort was s...

The Massachusetts Gun Control Act of 1998 continues to plague Massachusetts gun owners, and it has become particularly oppressive for retail handgun consumers, a Gun Tests reader writes us from the Bay State. Hes very involved in certain aspects of the regulatory process, and his background on how Second Amendment rights continue to be eroded there raised my eyebrows.

Among the many provisions of the Act are a complicated set of handgun testing requirements that apply to handguns sold by Massachusetts firearms dealers.

The first of these requirements is a handgun performance test that requires three samples in new condition to fire 600 rounds each without breakage and with no more t...